Heartless: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance

by Jade West

  The words grate when they come out of his mouth. Elaine may be a stupid bitch, but she’s mine, and no one talks about my Elaine that way.

  He continues on, oblivious, “She deserves everything coming to her. Taking debt on with the Powers sure ain’t a fucking charity gig. She should have kept to the rich girl charity bullshit. Would have been safer for her.”

  I tried to find the logic in her moves. But there wasn’t any logic in it. Not a bit. Trenton was right – she’d have to be a stupid bitch to get tangled up with Powers’ debt. But even if she was . . . she was a Constantine . . . Queen Bitch Caroline Constantine would surely clear her fuck-ups with cold, hard cash.

  Trenton read my mind.

  “Caroline’s washed her hands of it, so they say. Apparently, Elaine’s done it before, over and over. Last few times her mom’s bought her out of it, but not this time. This time the stakes are higher, and her mom has said no fucking way. She’s on her own. She’s been enough of an embarrassment to the family name already, so the whispers say. Mommy’s done with her.” He flicked his cigarette butt onto the body. “Elaine’s on her own, and they’re coming after her. Soon.”

  “And what exactly are they going to do about it?” I snapped, but I knew the answer. I could see it in his eyes.

  He gestured to the dead fool on the floor before he answered me, and I knew what was coming. Trenton Alto had questions of his own brewing fast. Questions I sure as hell didn’t want to be answering.

  “This is about her, ain’t it? This shit here? This is about Elaine Constantine?”

  “What the fuck does it matter?” I hissed at him. “Tell me exactly what the damn Power brothers are planning to do to her and when.”

  “Holy fuck, Lucian,” he said. “What the fuck is happening to you? Of course it damn matters. The very fact you’ve been breathing in the same air space as that Constantine bitch matters, and you know it. You fucking know it.”

  His eyes were bold and cold. Hard and disbelieving.

  He didn’t recognize me, and I didn’t recognize myself, either. I was swimming in shit, and all because of her. All because of the woman I should be hating with every evil sliver of my soul.

  Trenton was correct, and I hated him for it.

  He cleared his throat. “There are rumors already flying around, you know? Rumors about you not being in Morelli Holdings last week, rumors that something is going down . . . rumors about you chasing a pretty little blonde . . .”

  “Rumors can fly all they like. I’m not obligated to answer to any of them. My business is my fucking business, and mine only.”

  He looked guilty, shifting from foot to foot. “Not when the questions are coming from your dad.”

  My blood ran cold. “What the fuck has my father got to do with this?”

  He looked at the body and not at me. That’s when I knew it in stone.

  Jesus fucking Christ.

  Trenton Alto’s loyalty didn’t belong to me anymore. The motherfucker had been in discussions with my father.

  Discussions about me.

  “He asked me,” he said, as though that excused it. “I had to speak to him, Lucian. He asked me.”

  “Well, well. Does he know you’re here?” I pushed with a sneer.

  He shook his head and took out another cigarette. “Not here. Not yet. This sorry mess tonight all came about pretty damn quickly, don’t you think? I wouldn’t have been able to snitch to your dad if I’d have wanted to.” He lit up. “But he asked me what you’ve been doing. He asked me about Elaine Constantine. I didn’t start it, not at all. Seems the chauffeur has been reporting back.”

  Stupid fuck. He’d be paying for that.

  Trenton carried on talking, like I needed to hear his advice. “You’re getting yourself in crazy fucking waters. Don’t think I’m gonna be drowning there with you. Leave it alone. Leave her the fuck alone. Please, boss. Just leave her alone.”

  Even though my mouth was dry with rage, I couldn’t say I blamed him.

  Yet again, he was right. I was in crazy fucking waters.

  I was in the shit. I could feel it all the way through my skin. My father would only have to sniff a hint of the truth in me chasing down Elaine, and the whole damn world would feel my damnation along with me. He would tear me apart alive with the whole family cheering.

  “Seamus and Duncan have been around there already, you know,” Trenton said, and a whole fresh round of wrath flamed through my chest. “He was prepping them to step in for you at Holdings if you didn’t show your face again sharp.”

  I cursed. I hadn’t seen those sons of bitches in months. Seamus and Duncan were pathetic excuses for cousins who’d been trying to slip into Morelli Holdings and steal my power for over a decade. They’d never made it. Not even close, but if Father even caught a sniff that I was involved with that little blonde bitch . . .

  I looked at Trenton again and realized from the abject fear in his stare that I was strung up tight with no exit strategy.

  “I’ll try not to tell him,” he said. “But you know I won’t be able to hold off for long, Lucian. If he asks me, I can’t lie.”

  Even in my beast of a mentality, I couldn’t blame him. They’d tear his spleen out inch by inch until he confessed whatever the fuck they wanted from him. They’d get one hell of a confession, too. Trenton Alto knew my business from the inside out. I should’ve seen it coming and wiped him out a long time ago.

  I hadn’t wanted to. Somewhere down deep he meant something to me.

  Trust is always your greatest weakness. Never trust a soul but your own.

  How the fuck had I managed to forget my own mantra and let him live?

  “You’re a piece of shit for telling him anything,” I said to the man who’d been at my right hand for years. The man who was my link to the underworld and all its profits. The man who did the dirty while I did the deeds.

  “I had to be a piece of shit this time,” he told me. “I’m not sailing that ship with you, Lucian. I’ll end up at the bottom of the ocean when your dad finds out and blows up the whole damn boat along with you.”

  “Never had you down as a pussy,” I said, and he smirked at me.

  “Never had you down as such a goddamn crazy,” he replied.

  I stepped up closer to him. “What exactly did you snitch to my father?”

  He kept his eyes on mine as he answered. “I told him that you’ve seen her. Been stalking her around the place. I had to.” He paused. “Doesn’t know you’re digging her secrets out from the Power brothers. That’s a whole other league.”

  “You’d better fucking keep it that way if you want to keep your tongue in your mouth.”

  “Whatever you say, boss. It’s not just my tongue you wanna be worried about, though. Whispers are whispering right through the back alleys.”

  There was only one back alley I was interested in. It belonged to the woman whose back alley had been a glove around my dick.

  As much as I’d have enjoyed slitting Trenton Alto’s throat in that instant, I had too much I needed from him.

  “Let’s get back to my question,” I said with a sneer. “What are the Power brothers planning to do with Elaine Constantine?”

  He sighed. “They’ve already written her off as done. They’re coming for her. She’s a walking target. Ready and waiting. She knows it, too.”

  “She’s done? Underlined in red and ready for the finish? Fucking fools.”

  He sighed again. “They’d be fools if they didn’t. If they let that bitch off with what’s due, then every fucker would think they could leverage their connections to write their debts off. The Powers can’t allow that. Pride if not the practicalities.” He paused as he stared at me. “Why? What the hell are you planning to do about it? Please say you aren’t going to reason with them to save her ass. Please, to all the fucking gods, don’t say that.”

  He was right. I couldn’t save the pretty blonde bitch from the Power brothers. I’d be writing myself off for the associ
ation. The whole Morelli world would be a shitstorm along with me.

  “You ain’t gonna do it, right?” Trenton pushed, and it snapped me out of my headspin.

  I jabbed a finger into his cheek, and he gulped down a breath.

  “I’ll do what I want,” I said. “Clean this up, like I pay you for, and stay the fuck away from me. You’d better stay the fuck away from my father too, or you’ll regret it.”

  “Stuck between a rock and a hard place,” he groaned. “Fuck off, then. Leave me to it.”

  “Take out anyone who sticks their nose in,” I repeated, and with that I was out of there, down the metal steps with the cool night breeze on my face.

  The first thing I did was check the tracker on my cell, feeling a flood of relief to see my toy arriving back to her tower. She was home.

  Home with her asshole still bleeding from taking my cock, no doubt. The thought had me hard all over again.

  It’s a strange thing how walking alone can allow your thoughts to speak to each other so well. I found myself wondering just what the hell it was that made Elaine so irresistible to me. What the fuck was it that made that little princess so damn special?

  I remembered her skin pressed close to mine. Remembered the look in her eyes whenever they caught sight of me. I remembered her needy flesh, trembling for more pain, even when she was begging me to stop.

  Hurting her asshole was only a tiny taste of what was teasing me. I wanted the rest of her. Every filthy scrap of her.

  I wanted her to be my toy. I wanted her to be my pain dolly. My slut in the making.

  Elaine Constantine was a dirty little flower in a filthy world. She was tainted innocence in the face of debauchery. She was an unopened book with deep dark secrets, handwritten pages of beautiful hurt and shame and darkness in the half light.

  Elaine Constantine was a little jewel, trying to save pieces of shit all around her.

  Silly little bitch. Beautiful little bitch.

  She was a good girl who thought she was bad. A sweet little angel, begging to be punished.

  I’d punish her for her family’s sins as well as her own, and I’d love her for it. I’d love her to be a pretty little canvas in my basement, ready to be scarred with my evil.

  There was a strange twinge of fear right down in my guts as I headed back to my apartment that night. I wasn’t the only evil cunt planning to hurt Elaine Constantine. The sweet little angel was running out of time for salvation . . . and I was running out of time to save her from her sins.

  22

  Elaine

  The apartment block felt like a beacon of hope as the cab pulled into the parking lot.

  I was still damp from Lucian’s cold dousing as I raced on up through the main reception, still hurting from his assault on my asshole, too.

  But I loved it.

  Damn my heart, but I loved it.

  And I loved him.

  Save my soul, but he’d saved mine, and I adored the man.

  The monster.

  Lucian Morelli had saved me from my own stupid choices in my own stupid world. He’d saved me from an evil brute who’d put his cock’s pleasure above my soul’s pain . . .

  The little girl in me was crying out. If only Lucian had been there to save me from all the other evil assholes I’d known in my lifetime . . . maybe then I wouldn’t be the scared little druggie bitch I was today, bound up tight by my demons.

  But surely not . . . surely he could never have saved me . . . surely he’d never have wanted to . . .

  I’d never have believed it possible that one of the Morellis could have ever, ever saved me from my own sordid family, not in a million years, yet there I was, considering it as a maybe as my heart thumped wild.

  The Morellis were supposed to be hell demons clawing at the gates of our Constantine heaven, and I’d never challenged that. It had been a lesson I’d learned since I was old enough to understand words. The Morellis are demons, the Morellis are wicked, the Morellis are worth nothing but hate and disdain. I’d never once held up their blood-stained souls and compared them to ours.

  My cell sounded out, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

  Tristan.

  Thank fuck it was Tristan.

  My fingers were shaking worse than ever as I answered him, and my voice was as shaky to match.

  Hello? Tristan? Hello?

  His voice was as jagged as mine was, gasping breaths as he found the words.

  “Is he there? Lucian? Is he there? He’s coming after you, Laine! He’s coming! He fucked me up, Laine. I only just came round. I only just got to my cell!”

  Tristan’s call was way too late to warn me of the devil’s appearance, but I couldn’t tell him that.

  “Lucian isn’t here. I’m, um . . . I’m at home . . .”

  “What? You’re home? In Central Apartment? Is Stephen there? Are you with Stephen?”

  More than anything I wanted to tell Tristan the truth; that Stephen was a monster who’d tried to rape me, and Lucian had saved me from his grasp. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell him that Stephen was dead, and I’d been ass-fucked in his blood and loved every second of it like a good little slut.

  “I’m not with Stephen, either,” I said. “He didn’t come with me.”

  “Holy shit, Laine. Morelli knocked us both out cold on the floor, and he was coming for you.” He paused. “Coming for you and Stephen . . . so where’s Stephen? Where’s Stephen, Laine? He wouldn’t have let you go that easy.”

  “I dunno . . .” I said, but my voice let me down. Tristan knew that. He knew me well enough to read my tone, even through my lies.

  I heard his senses sharpen, even in his disorientation.

  “So, where the fuck is Stephen, Laine?”

  I heard a sob in my words, and I hated it. I hated slipping my mask down, always, even to my very best friend.

  “I can’t tell you . . . I don’t know . . .”

  “Bullshit!” he snapped. “This is all total bullshit. Morelli would have reached you, and I know it. I called as soon as I could, but I know it. He had time. So either you weren’t there to start with . . . or you were there and he came . . . or Stephen was there and you left him . . .” He paused, and I closed my eyes, praying that this whole world of a mess was nothing but a nightmare. “What happened, Laine? Just tell me what the fuck happened.”

  I didn’t answer. I couldn’t find my voice.

  “You’d better start talking,” he said. “I’m coming over there. I’m coming over to you right now, so help me, God. I don’t give a fuck if Lucian Morelli is there or not, I’m coming over.”

  “Please . . . no!” I screamed, but he was already gone.

  I tried calling back, but he wouldn’t answer me. I cursed as I dashed about the apartment, shedding my bloodied clothes and scrubbing myself down in my own shower. I dumped my clutch in my wash basket, and tugged on some PJs, looking ghostly as all shit in the bathroom mirror. I paced, waiting, hoping. I paced, praying. I paced, begging my heart to lose this infatuation with a demon and come to my damn senses for once in my goddamn life.

  Tristan was without Blue when he arrived at my front door. His face was swollen and darkening on one side, his steps sore as he pushed past me with his cell held up high.

  “I’ve got security on the line!” he yelled into the empty suite. “I swear it, motherfucker! I have security on the line and waiting! They’ll come for you!”

  “He’s not here!” I insisted, and finally, with one final charge around the place, Tristan believed me.

  He threw me down onto the couch, hard. I cried out as I landed, still trembling.

  “Talk to me,” he said, and his eyes were wild. “For once in your fucking life, Elaine, just talk to me.”

  I put my face in my hands. “I can’t. Believe me, Tristan, you don’t want to know.”

  “Oh yeah?” He crouched down in front of me. “I think you’ll find I do. I think you’ll find I want to know just what the fuck that sonofabitch did
to you and Stephen. Did he kill him, huh? Did Morelli kill Stephen Cannon?”

  I didn’t shake my head, but I didn’t answer him either.

  “Fuck,” he said, getting to his feet and kicking out at the couch. “Fucking hell, just fuck.”

  “Stay out of it,” I told him, and my voice sounded like the sad little girl’s I’d come to know so well through the years. “Really, Tristan, stay out of it. You need to.”

  “I can’t,” he snapped. “Even if I wanted to, I can’t! Blue is trying to find Stephen right now, and he knows what Morelli did to us and where he was going. The whole fucking party knows what Morelli did to us and where he was going, even if they don’t know who he is yet. They’ll find out, Elaine! Your whole fucking family is gonna know it soon enough! You won’t be able to keep that shit away from them!”

  I could feel my heartbeat in my ears, the sickness swimming around my belly, and the beer, and the spirits, and the fizz didn’t matter; my head was stone-cold sober and plunging into the pits of despair. He was right. Of course he was. My family would be finding out about this. They had to.

  And so would his. So would Lucian Morelli’s.

  We were both fucked, both of us beyond redemption in a world made of sinners.

  “I’ll find a way out of it,” I said to myself more than Tristan. “I’ll hide it, say something different, I’ll find a way.”

  He was shaking his head as I spoke. “A way out of them finding out that you were at a backstreet party with Lucian Morelli knocking people out cold? Good fucking luck with that.”

  “I’ll find a way,” I insisted, but I could feel the sobs bubbling back up. “He’ll find a way.”

  Tristan’s eyes were cold as ice when they met with mine. “His father will kill him, Laine. The very moment he finds out he was chasing you down, he’ll tear him apart.”

  I let out another sob, and he pushed it. He fucking pushed it.

  “Why are you fucking crying, Laine? Lucian Morelli saying his last goodbyes should have you smiling, not fucking sobbing.”

  I wiped my eyes, and he could read it in my stare right back at him.